


BtP S1, Party Favour: Thoughts on Accents

by BehindThePod, eafay70



Category: Podfic Fandom
Genre: Audio Format: M4A, Audio Format: MP3, Audio Format: Streaming, Meta, Other, Podcast, Podfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-22
Updated: 2019-12-22
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:21:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21617530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BehindThePod/pseuds/BehindThePod, https://archiveofourown.org/users/eafay70/pseuds/eafay70
Summary: Eafay70 talks about characters with accents and how she decides whether to attempt the accents in a podfic.Duration - 00:10:14
Comments: 2
Kudos: 21
Collections: Behind the Pod - Series 1





	1. Chapter 1

[](https://dl.dropbox.com/s/xn45p5w9tr2zwc8/BtP%20S1%20Party%20Favour%20-%20eafay70.png)  
  
---  
  
### Behind the Pod, Party Favour: Thoughts on Accents

###### Streaming:

Your browser doesn't support streaming with HTML5, but you can still download this podfic from the other link/s provided.

###### Download:

  * MP3 link: [Dropbox](https://www.dropbox.com/s/0ljunfy4u2ahyos/BtP%20S1%20Party%20Favour%20-%20eafay70.mp3?dl=0) or [google drive](https://drive.google.com/open?id=1uYrOTten2az3JkgYJev8_cQwcyNb9HlC) | 4.74 mb.
  * M4A/B link: [Dropbox](https://www.dropbox.com/s/xfdwjvcbzaxmabd/BtP%20S1%20Party%20Favour%20-%20eafay70.m4a?dl=0) or [google drive](https://drive.google.com/open?id=1SK20abalgkDMD6dOU8BtOowdu2X-Vpnj) | 4.98 mb. 



###### Additional links:

* [Podfic featuring one of my stuffed animals as a character (football RPF, rated T, runtime 00:03:13)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18433892)

###### Commenting and Talkback:

eafay70 - Eafay - she/her pronouns - [AO3](https://archiveofourown.org/users/eafay70) \- [Twitter](https://twitter.com/eafay70)

\- - -

If you'd like to leave an audio comment (aka talkback) instead of a written comment, here's how! 

* 1) Record your talkback, and upload it somewhere easily accessible (ideally somewhere people can listen to your talkback without having to download the file first). You can also upload it to [this Google Drive folder](https://drive.google.com/open?id=1aQtt6R0zGe-lLdjd8ihR9vNAnktyyhTU).
* 2) Leave a comment here or a reply to [this Dreamwidth post](https://bethepod.dreamwidth.org/5189.html) with a link to your talkback audio file!  
---


	2. Transcript

Hello! This is eafay70.  
Today I'm going to talk about accents, specifically characters with accents and what a podficcer might consider when deciding whether to try the accents in a podfic.

I'll start by explaining my own accent. It is a New Jersey accent, with influences from New York because that's the closest major metropolis to where I grew up.

The question of characters with accents comes up for me quite often because most of my podfics involve characters not from New Jersey. In fact, the only character I've recorded from New Jersey was one of my own stuffed animals in a magical realism AU.

Most of the characters in my podfics have been Canadian, with some Brits, Swedes, Finns, and probably others I'm forgetting. 

So, how do I decide what to do?/How might other podficcers decide what to do?

One: Do I have the time and energy I need?  
Especially if you're trying a particular accent for the first time, recording an accent in a podfic often requires repeating lines a bunch of times/doing multiple takes because there's a good chance of making mistakes, starting to laugh so much that you lose focus or you just lose where you are in the text, or completely forgetting how things actually sound in the accent in question, leading to lots and lots of Googling and YouTubing and not a whole lot of recording. I don't know if the fact that my podfics are RPF makes the YouTube tangents worse, but it is a thing that has happened quite often to me. So if you're pressed for time, or you're lower on energy than usual because real life is kicking your butt or something, maybe accent-wise the right decision is not this time.

Two: How familiar is the accent?  
I entered podfic fairly familiar with what Canadian and British accents sounded like. Swedish accents, Finnish accents? No, not at all!  
This means that I'm often harsher with myself when it comes to attempting Canadian or British accents. But it also means that I might not need quite as many do-overs with Canadian or British accents because they're more familiar.

Three: What role does the accent play in the story?  
Sometimes, this is as obvious as the narrator saying, [deeper voice] "He recognized from the way she said 'a-boot' that she was from Canada." [normal voice] And, not wanting to contradict the narrator, I wind up saying 'a-boot' whenever the character says 'about.' Or, if a character is treated as different or other in some way, then doing the accent might emphasize that, if of course the accent is different/other compared to the rest of the characters. But, not all stories are like that, of course. If the story doesn't treat the accent or what it might represent as something important, then doing the accent might come across as jarring. Or, if all of the characters have the same accent, then it just might not be worth the effort.

And last but not least, number four: Do I feel like it?  
Yes, it really can be that simple! Podficcing is meant to be enjoyable. If, for whatever reason, doing the accent is not enjoyable in a specific case, then you shouldn't do the accent. It's not always easy to convince yourself of that, so what I wind up doing is reminding myself that in podfic, there is really no right or wrong. Even if you're recording the same character in multiple podfics, which I have done, there is no rule saying you need to make the exact same decision regarding the accent. I know that sounds oddly simplistic compared to the other stuff I was talking about, but sometimes that's what it boils down to. And that is okay.

So now you're probably asking yourselves, 'Well, Eafay, what do you usually do?'  
The fact of the matter is, I don't have a 'usually,' but I do have a couple of 'oftens.'

If it's an accent I'm familiar with, I will often attempt it. It will often lead to lots of laughter, if for whatever reason I'm not doing a very good job of it, or if it's just words I'm not used to hearing in that accent. And if it gets a little too laugh-y, to the point where it's not very time-efficient, then I opt against the accent altogether.

And I often attempt newer accents only after listening to them in real life a few times, and even then, I often decide not to go with it on my first attempt. But I pretty much always wind up asking myself the same set of questions I went through here, and the answer varies.

So, that's everything! Thank you so, so much for listening. And if you have your own criteria for deciding whether or not to do an accent, or if you have your own stories related to trying accents, I would absolutely love to hear them. You will instructions for feedback in the outro, and you can read them on the AO3 page.  
Bye-bye!


End file.
